Before anyone gets excited about the Jags remember this: they're playing a last place schedule in the worst division in football.

Add in injuries to the best players in the division (Luck, Watson, Watt, etc)? That's a recipe for a fluke season.

As for TC's success earlier? He built an expansion team with FAs and that blew up in his face towards the end of his tenure.

I think you are confusing the late 90s Jags with the late 90s Panthers. The Jags actually were primarily built through the draft and appeared to have one of the best young nucleuses in the league by 1999. They drafted a bunch of Pro Bowlers (Boselli, Brackens, Taylor, Darius, Bryant) and found a lot of key contributors in later rounds as well. A lot of the FAs they did bring in were young guys cut by other teams who matured into huge stars (Brunell, Smith, McCardell). They had a rash of injuries in 2000-2001 and things turned for the worse, but the drafts for the rest of Coughlin's term remained successful and they added a bunch of guys who were big contributors for the playoff teams they had with Del Rio from 2005-2007.

It's reasonable to criticize Coughlin for his flaws, including stubbornness and rigidity that led to him sticking with some veterans too long with both the Jags and Giants, but his record as an executive with the Jags was pretty strong and as a coach with both teams, impressive. There's no need to downgrade his obvious accomplishments.

I think you are confusing the late 90s Jags with the late 90s Panthers. The Jags actually were primarily built through the draft and appeared to have one of the best young nucleuses in the league by 1999. They drafted a bunch of Pro Bowlers (Boselli, Brackens, Taylor, Darius, Bryant) and found a lot of key contributors in later rounds as well. A lot of the FAs they did bring in were young guys cut by other teams who matured into huge stars (Brunell, Smith, McCardell). They had a rash of injuries in 2000-2001 and things turned for the worse, but the drafts for the rest of Coughlin's term remained successful and they added a bunch of guys who were big contributors for the playoff teams they had with Del Rio from 2005-2007.

It's reasonable to criticize Coughlin for his flaws, including stubbornness and rigidity that led to him sticking with some veterans too long with both the Jags and Giants, but his record as an executive with the Jags was pretty strong and as a coach with both teams, impressive. There's no need to downgrade his obvious accomplishments.